Stupid Darkroom Mistakes

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Stephanie Brim

Mental Experimental.
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I've been developing film for at least two years and have never done something as stupid as I just did.

I decided to shoot the rest of a roll of Plus-X I had in my folder so that I could see how well it was working. Got done and thought I'd lightproof the bathroom and develop the film. Spent a good hour setting up the bathroom so that no light could get in to get the film onto the reel, dropped the reel in the tank, and set about developing the film. I take the lid off the tank to pour out the developer (Rodinal this time) and realize something is amiss. Look down at my feet and lo and behold, there's the core of the tank. You know, that piece that makes the thing lightproof? Yeah. It wasn't in the tank.

Quickly turned out the light, put the fixer in, and put the lid back on. Figure that hopefully not all the frames are dust.

Luckily they weren't...but man, that was stupid.

Anyone else want to share their really stupid mistakes?
 
I once showed a girl how to develop film, I measured out the developer, stop bath and fixer into seperate beakers. Then as I was talking to her I reached over and poured the fixer into the developing tank. Instantly turning my film into ISO Zero.

Fortunately it was a roll of film of an engagement couple and we were able to re-shoot the session. I made this mistake after 20 years of developing film.

Wayne
 
Step 1: Pour developer in graduated cylinder and then pour it's contents into the film tank.

Step 2: While developing the film, put yellow funnel on top of developer bottle.

Step 3: And while there's still some time, fill the graduated cylinder with stop bath.

Step 4: Ten seconds left . . . put a yellow funnel in the stop bath bottle also.

Step 5: Ding! Time is up. Dump the developer into the yellow funnel.

Crap! Anyone care for a cocktail?

Sometimes being frugal is not so frugal.
 
I don't have a dark bag because i'm planning to build my darkroom (the real one) soon enough that I can go for a couple months...but the next time I'm going into the closet to load the reels. Safer.
 
I'm pretty error prone, but to my amazement, after 4 years in the darkroom I haven't exposed a whole box of paper yet.
Yesterday, I got where I was going to shoot the soon to be demolished Everett waterfront, only to find I had left home with no 120 film. It instantly became a 35mm project.
A few weeks ago I went on a long hike to some really interesting mining ruins. When I got there, I set up my camera and went to put film in it, only to find I'd forgotten to put the spool back in it after I cleaned it last. I had to waste a perfectly good 120 roll to use the camera...
More than once, I've left prints in the rinse tray and gone to bed, forgotten about them for a day or more, and found them molding in the tray. Doh!
Many many times I've forgotten to stop down the enlarger lens after focusing and overexposed my print...
And of course there will be more, but the worst by far was when I somehow deleted my entire digital mining picture folder from my harddrive.
 
I've been developing my 35mm using a changing bag and daylight tank - so far no user errors.

However, I started shooting 4 x 5 a couple of months ago, and I'm not using the changing bag, but instead I'm blocking out the laundry room in the basement. So, the first time I unloaded my holders in the dark, I curled up the sheets tortilla-style and placed them in the daylight tank. I then turned on the lights, and about 20 minutes later as I was just about to poor in the Diafine, I realized that I had not put the light trap cylinder in the daylight tank!

Oh well, at least I'm using Arista EDU.Ultra at only $.30 per sheet.

Duane
 
I didn't even wait till I got to the darkroom. Today I "exposed" a complete roll with the lens cap on (hasn't happen before despite shooting film with a RF for a couple of years but I know it had to happen sooner or later). Then again, it was a landscape shoot. Just popped in another roll and did the retake. Or should I just say I was checking the body for light leaks?🙂
 
Working in a college darkroom, my favorite is when first timers start their prints in the hypo clear, then move them to the fixer, then to the stop, and finally to the developer, destroying their print and back-contaminating all the trays as they go. Cool!
 
FrankS said:
Many many times I've forgotten to stop down the enlarger lens after focusing and overexposed my print...

Common for me too.
Click to expand...

me too...wasted a lot of paper on that

Also, mixed up my filter when doing split filters for printing (not that big a deal)...but, I would get nervous and check to see if I had the right one in, while the enlarger was on and BAM! bright white light...not a big deal in your own darkroom, but in a community one you get some pissed off people and rightly so.

Live and learn

Jason
 
Stephanie, think again about that lightproof bag, even if get a dedicated permanent darkroom. It has other uses too, like rescuing film from a camera after some sort of disaster.
 
Why is a film tent better than a dark room? I've never used one, but also never saw a need outside of dealing with sheet film when you need to shoot more frames than you have film holders for.
Personally, I find 36 exposures too many and often end up with a roll of film in a 35mm camera for too long, or want to see results before I finish that many frames.
So I take the camera into the darkroom, and open the back without rewinding the film. Then I cut the film, remove the exposed portion and develop it. The rest of the roll can go back in the camera after a new leader has been cut on it with scissors.
 
Shortly after getting into film, I moved from 35mm to 120. Even after developing a few rolls of 120, I still kept getting the measurements for the volume of solution mixed up (ie: enough solution for 1 roll of 35mm, 1 roll of 120, 2 rolls of 35mm, etc...). One time I was processing a roll of 120 but only put in enough developer for a roll of 35mm. Since I caught it right after I poured it in, i quickly mixed up the difference in solution to pour it in. In my haste, I grabbed the wrong cup and poured in the stop bath. Whoops! I quickly poured out the solution and re-mixed more developer. After I finished, there were a couple frames with uneven development, but most of the roll came out okay.

Another time, I again poured in the incorrect amount of developer for a roll of 120 but hadn't realized it until after it was finished. Fortunately it was a roll taken with the holga so it added to the effect in a serendipitous manner.

Quite appropriate, wouldn't you say?

20060628_11.jpg


Now all my measuring cups are marked and labeled with the correct measurement for various combinations of film sizes.
 
I once poured Kodak indicator stop bath Stock solution into my tank. Agitated away like I normally do, then after the 30 seconds poured out a very thick, black goo. Took me a minute to realize what I'd done (I had turned the film base back into a semi-solid state), then another minute to realize I had no other stop bath for the next tank!
 
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sepiareverb said:
I once poured Kodak indicator stop bath Stock solution into my tank. Agitated away like I normally do, then after the 30 seconds poured out a very thick, black goo. Took me a minute to realize what I'd done (I had turned the film base back into a semi-solid state), then another minute to realize I had no other stop bath for the next tank!
Click to expand...

This is a good argument for a good old-fashioned water stop. 😉
 
I haven't made any of the previously mentioned mistakes, but I had a terrible sequence of absolutely stupid mistakes for about a week a couple of months ago. I would roll my film perfectly, I would mix all my solutions properly, and then when it came to fill my tank, I would just take the lid off . I did this *twice*. Similarly, there was time where I forgot to put the rolled reels (was doing a big batch) in the tanks before I turned on the light. I think that it had something to do with being sleep deprived and very rushed. Thankfully, I haven't done anything so stupid since then.
 
I've only processed three rolls (in as many weeks) so far, but I'm sure that when it comes time to develop a roll that really matters, then I'll screw something up. 😉
 
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